Adjustable garment hangers



Sept 3, 1957 y J. AMBRoslNo l 2,805,011

' ADJUSTABLE GARMENT HANGERS Filed Sept. 14,-1954 INVENTOR I /fzwaJz/zaUnited States Patent() ADJUSTABLE GARMENT HANGERS `lohn Ambrosino,Flushing, N. Y. Application September 14, 1954, Serial No. 455,867

s claims. (cl. 223-88) Thisinvention relates to garment hangers, andmore particularly to a garment hanger having adjustable skirt or trousersupporting members. Y Y l The invention provides a simple andinexpensive hanger which holds a garment from within the waistband inits natural form without any spring pressure as in so-called scissortype garment hangers which sometimes unduly stretch and deform agarment.

The garment hanger of this invention is positively slip-proof, a featurewhich is particularly important when thegarment is to be stored-in anovercrowded closet or store rack.

The invention consists in the combination of any standard coat hangerwith a pair of suitably shaped members which depend from the hanger, arelongitudinally slid-'` ably mounted thereon, and are provided withoutwardly facing projections to engage a garment, such as a skirt or apairjof trousers below the waistline and tirmly support the same againstany but intentional pressure thereagainst to remove the garment.

The invention will be further described hereinafter, several preferredembodiments thereof shown in the accompanying drawing wherein likecharacters of reference indicate similar elements, and the inventionwill beiinally pointed out 4in the appended claims. Y

IIn the drawing, Y g K- '-1 Fig. 1 Y' a view of the preferred form of mygarment hanger showing two skirt supporting members frictionallyengaging the'coat supporting members, and in dotgdash lines the hangerupon folding thereof for convenient stor age;

IFig. .2 is an enlarged perspectiveview, partly in section, of one skirtsupporting member;

Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 3-3 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 shows one portion of a slightly diiferent garment hanger whereinthe skirt supporting members are movable along a horizontal carrierconnecting the outer ends of the coat supporting members;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged, partly sectional perspective view of the skirtsupporting member shown in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 shows a modification of the garment hanger illustrated in Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 shows still another embodiment of my invention wherein a hangerfor skirts only is shown;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged vertical section taken on line 8-8 in Fig. 7; and

Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of one portion of the hanger shown in Fig. l,wherein the locking action between the skirt supporting and the coatsupporting member is shown in more detail.

Referring now to the illustrated embodiments, and more particularly toFig. 1, -there 'is shown a hanger 10 having two suitably rounded andsomewhat downwardly inclined coat supports 11 and 12, and a hook 13. Asshown in dot-dash lines, supports 11 and 12 may be pivotally joined andthe entire hanger, when not in use, collapsed upwardly whereby supports11, 12 assume the dot-dash positions 11', 12. This mode of collapsing2,805,011 Patented Sept. 3, 1957 the hanger offers various advantagesover the folding methods used, for example, in scissor-type hangerswherein the hanger is collapsed downwardly, i. e. to leave the hook 13exposed upon folding. The upwardly folded hanger (a) requires less spacefor storage, and (b) does not require a special lock to retain thesupports 11, 12` in desired position to suspend a coat thereon.

Longitudinal grooves 14, 15 are cut into vertical walls on both sides ofmembers 11, 12, and terminate toward the center of the hanger. The lowerends of grooves 14,` 15 are free to receive'skirt supporting members 16,17, one of which is shown enlarged in Fig. 2. A skirt 20 is shown insection, having a waistband 21 and a lower enlarged portion 22 held bypreferably rounded outwardly projecting portions 18, 19 of members 16,17, respectively.

yThe upper, retaining, portion 23 of member 16, shown in Fig. 2,consists of a bottom wall 24 and two vertical walls 25, 26 havinginwardly bent flanges 27, 28 slidable in slots or grooves 14, 15 ofmembers 11, 12. This retaining portion 23 of membe'r'16 receives asuitably shaped flat spring 29 which frictionally engages the lower sideof member 11, as shown in connection with members 12 and 17 in Fig. 3,and preventssliding of memberl save when suliicient pressure is exertedthereagainst by the user of the garment hanger. When a skirt issupported by the members 16, 17, the weight of the skirt. acts inwardlyagainst the lowermost portions 18, 19. of said members, in the directionof arrow A as shown in. Fig. 9, and instead of sliding in the`grooves.14,` 1S, mem-r bers 16, 17 tendA tofpivot around the contactingsurface'.v of spring 29, whereby corner a abuts against the lower4 wallor channel or'groove 14, and cornerjb arbutsagainstV thebottom wall ofmember 11thereby'preventing any" movement of member 16.-This'positionofmember 16 is shown somewhat vexaggerated Vfor betterillustration inf dotted lines in Fig. 9, under 16'. As shown in Fig.-3,;grooves 15 areof a Width just suflicientto permitinse'rtion of flanges27, 28 of member V17 therein,and no' actual fpivoting takes place.However, when it is desired to displace Ythe member 16 to either removethe skirt, therefrom or to suspend a Vgarment thereon, theforce'B'closely below member 11 is applied thereagainst and themember-V16A will readily move in either direction, e; gfin ,the positionshown in dot-dash lines in Fig. 9, under '16. i L

As seen in Figs. 2"and'3, the verticalV walls v2S,v 26' of the upperportions of members '16, 17 garevpreferablyebente, outwardly; `toprovidek two vertical tiia'n'ges i315: .312V :which serve as abutmentsfor the lingers of the user, to facilitate the movement of members 16,17 in either direction.

Fig. 4 shows a slightly different hanger comprising a horizontal bar 130having notches or teeth 131 preferably along its entire length. Asomewhat different skirt supporting member 116 is shown in Fig. 5, withone vertical wall 126 partly broken away to show the mode of insertionof a spring 129 which is suitably shaped so as to act as a pawl incooperation with the teeth 131 on bar 130. To adjust member 116, thelower end 129a of spring 129 is pressed downwardly to disengage thespring from teeth 131 and the member 116 is then moved to right, whereasthe movement to left does not require the withdrawal of spring 129 sincethe spring will merely ride on the teeth when the member 116 is pushedoutwardly.

A modification of this hanger is shown in Fig. 6. Here, a horizontal bar130 is shown without notches and the member 116 has a spring 129 equalin shape to that shown in Fig. 2.

Finally, Fig. 7 shows a further simplification, wherein the hanger isintended for skirts or trousers only and the member 216 completelysurrounds the bar 230 providing a pusher 231 to adjust the member 216 indesired posi- 3 tion.` Because ofthe provision of pusher 231, outwardlyfacing flanges 31, 32 shown in Figs. 2 and 3 maybe omitted in thismember 216.-

Aside of its stability, reliability/,and adjustability, the

novel' haruger,` due toA the'simpiicityof itsl construction, has obvlousadvantages for mass production over'scisfsor--V type yhangers .whoseproduction costs are incomparably higher. As the forces acting at Vthelower ends of'the skirt supporting members shown in'Figs. 1, 6V and 7tend to automatically lock'fthe structure, `the hangerrwill not releasea garment even'in an overcrowded closet and will lock more securely indirect proportion to the increase of the applied force. it will unlockand permit the sliding of theskirt supporting members only when the userapplies a force in a direction parallel tothe hanger portion supportingthe skirt supporting members, i. e. either the jacket supporting membersor one of the horizontal carriers, whereby only the relatively weakfrictional force between the spring and the jacket supporting member orbar is to be overcome, or the spring 129 must be disengaged as shown inFig. 4.

Obviously, the grooves 14, may be omitted in Fig. 1 and the upperportions 23 of members 16, 17 made to completely surround the members11, 12, ory the upper portions 23 may be held in a single groove inmembers 11, 12. Also, provided the material of member 16 has suilicientinherent resiliency, spring 29 may be omitted and the bottom wall ofmember 16 slotted and stamped to frictionally engage member 11,

When in use, the two skirt supporting members are slidl inwardly towardthe hook and then inserted into the skirt so that their lower portionsengage the garment below the waistband. The two members are then movedoutwardly until they rmly engage the garment. Members 16, `17 should bearranged substantially symmetrically with respect to hook 13 to maintainthe garment carrying hanger in equilibrium. To remove the skirt and tothen again suspend the garment, only one skirt supporting member must bemoved, iirst inwardly and then Voutwardly, the other member need notchange its position any more.

While it is believed that the above detailed description will guidepersons skilled in the art to practice my invention, I do not desire tobe limited to the exact details illustrated in the drawings, but only bythe scope of the appended claims. t

I claim:

1. The combination of a garment hanger having a hook and an elongatedlcarrier element with a pair of skirt supporting members attached inmirror reverse to said carrier element, said hook .extending above themedian portion of said carrier element, said carrier element 4 havingtwo longitudinal ends and at least a part thereof being of uniformcross-sectional area from said ends toward the median portion thereof,each of said skirt supporting members having a retaining portion of aconfiguration complementary to the configuration of said part of saidcarrier element and including spaced, substantially parallel, generallyflat surfaces slidably guided along cooperating surfaces on the carrierelement for re stricting same to longitudinal movement along said partof said carrier element from said ends toward said median portionthereof, a resilient element attached to each of said retaining portionsand in permanent frictional engagement with said carrier element formaintaining said skirt supporting members in a state of immobility whenno external force in the longitudinal direction and applied in the closeproximity of said part of said carrier element is exerted on saidretaining portions, each of said skirt supporting members furtherincluding a downwardly extending leg, the upper extremities of said legsbeing integral with said retaining portions and the lower extremities ofsid legs having means for engaging and retaining a garment below thewaistline thereof.

2. The structure of claim 1, wherein said garment hanger furtherincludes a coat supporting member and said hook is attached to theYmedian portion thereof, said carrier element being a bar with said Yendsthereof attached to the free extremities of vsaid coat supportingmember.

3. The combination of claim l, wherein said carrier element is anelongated horizontal bar with said hook attached to` the median portionand extending above said bar, said retaining portion of each of saidskirt supporting members being a tubular body for receiving said bar andslidable therealong between said hook and the respective ends of saidbar, each of said retaining portions having a projecting handgrip memberfor moving said skirt supporting members along said bar.

References Cited in the le of this patent Ambrosino July 6, 1954

